Automated control for certain functions of refrigerators and other domestic facilities

ABSTRACT

Smart home controller working with a household appliance, or a household appliance with the controller installed, and in particular refrigeration apparatus with a controller. The appliance has an auxiliary operation initiated automatically based on user activity, and the controller provides an auxiliary operation suppression unit configured to prevent said user activity from automatically triggering said auxiliary operation. The controller may be connected to operate the auxiliary operation suppression unit based on a calendar and locally calculated daylight times. The controller is useful for preventing refrigerator lights and the like from turning on when not wanted.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/558,112 filed on Sep. 1, 2019 which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/964,735 filed on Dec. 10, 2015 now U.S. Pat. No.10,409,236, which claims the benefit of priority of Israel PatentApplication No. 236214 filed on Dec. 11, 2014. The contents of the aboveapplications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to automatedcontrol for certain functions of refrigerators and other domesticappliances and facilities and, more particularly, but not exclusively,to automated shut off of certain functions according to a timetable.

A refrigerator is a widely used domestic appliance for keeping foodchilled and thus allowing food to last longer. The basic refrigerator isa reverse heat engine and is often combined with a freezer. Therefrigerator is generally intended to keep food at around 4 degreescentigrade and the freezer at around minus 20 degrees centigrade.

In most models of refrigerator, auxiliary functions are provided, suchas an internal light that turns on when opening the door, and inaddition, the operation of the motor may be affected by opening andclosing the refrigerator door.

Such issues pose a problem for observant Jews, who regard the switchingon and off of lights and other electrical equipment as forbidden on holydays such as the Sabbath and festivals, and hence there is the need toaccess food without switching on the light.

In many models of refrigerator, the light is operated by a simplemechanical switch located behind the door, and many people simply placea piece of sticky tape over the switch. In more advanced models, theopening of the door is electronically sensed and thus the sticky tapesolution does not work. The problem is thus solved by removing the lightbulb altogether. However in many refrigerators the light bulb is notimmediately accessible.

Another solution involves inserting an additional switch for the lamp sothat it can be switched to a permanent off state during the Sabbath orfestival. A further solution involves connecting external electronics tothe refrigerator which ensures both that the light does not operate andthat the motor is not affected by opening the door. Finally there arecertain models of refrigerator that have a built in Sabbath switch thatsets the refrigerator into a state in which the offending operations arestopped.

All of these solutions suffer from one common disadvantage. The Sabbathobserver has to remember to operate or implement the favored solutionbefore the Sabbath starts. Failure to do so means lack of access tochilled food for a whole day. In particular the Sabbath observer,opening the refrigerator door on the Sabbath and seeing the lightoperated, determines that he/she is unable to close the door for fear ofturning off the light, and at least if the door is open then food can beaccessed, although the refrigerator motor will be operating at maximumtrying to keep the food cold.

The issue is not restricted to refrigerators. With increasingautomation, and with the coming of the smart home, more and morefunctions are becoming automated. The Sabbath observer generallywelcomes these changes and improvements, but seeks a way to avoid themimpinging on his Sabbath observance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Time switches that operate on a weekly basis are available. However,simply using a time switch on the auxiliary functions is not a solutionfor two reasons. The Sabbath starts and ends at different times eachweek as its hours are determined by sunset times. Secondly, there are,in addition to the weekly Sabbath, eight or fifteen festival days onwhich the same issues apply, their dates being determined according tothe Hebrew calendar.

The present embodiments use microprocessor control to switch off theunwanted auxiliary functions based on the Hebrew calendar and knowledgeof the local time and location.

According to an aspect of some embodiments of the present invention,there is provided refrigeration apparatus with an auxiliary operationinitiated automatically based on user activity, the apparatus furthercomprising:

an auxiliary operation suppression unit configured to prevent said useractivity from automatically triggering said auxiliary operation, and

a controller connected to operate said auxiliary operation suppressionunit based on a calendar and locally calculated daylight times.

In an embodiment, the calendar is the Hebrew calendar.

In an embodiment, the locally calculated daylight times comprise aSabbath onset time and a Sabbath end time calculated according to acurrent location.

An embodiment may comprise an interface for entering locationcoordinates to said controller.

In an embodiment, said auxiliary operation suppression unit comprises anactuator, the actuator located over a physical switch governing saidauxiliary operation.

In an embodiment, said auxiliary operation is governed by a controllercommand based on output of a sensor, said auxiliary operationsuppression unit configured to suppress said controller command.

In an embodiment, said auxiliary operation is governed by a controllercommand based on output of a sensor, said auxiliary operationsuppression unit configured to suppress output of said sensor.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method for auxiliary operation suppression for a Refrigerator havingan auxiliary operation, said auxiliary operation initiated automaticallybased on user activity, the method comprising:

obtaining a calendar and locally calculated daylight times, and

carrying out said suppression by preventing said user activity fromautomatically triggering said auxiliary operation according to daysbased on said calendar and according to times based on said locallycalculated daylight times.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is providedapparatus with an auxiliary operation initiated automatically based onuser activity, the apparatus further comprising:

an auxiliary operation suppression unit configured to prevent said useractivity from automatically triggering said auxiliary operation, and

a controller connected to operate said auxiliary operation suppressionunit based on a calendar and locally calculated daylight times.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method for auxiliary operation suppression for an appliance having anauxiliary operation, said auxiliary operation initiated automaticallybased on user activity, the method comprising:

obtaining a calendar and locally calculated daylight times, and

carrying out said suppression by preventing said user activity fromautomatically triggering said auxiliary operation according to daysbased on said calendar and according to times based on said locallycalculated daylight times.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda smart home controller providing at least one automatic operationinitiated automatically based on user activity, the controller furthercomprising:

an automatic operation suppression unit configured to prevent said useractivity from automatically triggering said automatic operation, and

a controller connected to operate said automatic operation suppressionunit based on a calendar and locally calculated daylight times.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method for suppression of an operation initiated automatically basedon user activity in smart control of a home, the method comprising:

obtaining a calendar and locally calculated daylight times, and

carrying out said suppression by preventing said user activity fromautomatically triggering said automatic operation according to daysbased on said calendar and according to times based on said locallycalculated daylight times.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and/or scientific terms usedherein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art to which the invention pertains. Although methods andmaterials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used inthe practice or testing of embodiments of the invention, exemplarymethods and/or materials are described below. In case of conflict, thepatent specification, including definitions, will control. In addition,the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and are notintended to be necessarily limiting.

Implementation of the method and/or system of embodiments of theinvention can involve performing or completing selected tasks manually,automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actualinstrumentation and equipment of embodiments of the method and/or systemof the invention, several selected tasks could be implemented byhardware, by software or by firmware or by a combination thereof usingan operating system.

For example, hardware for performing selected tasks according toembodiments of the invention could be implemented as a chip or acircuit. As software, selected tasks according to embodiments of theinvention could be implemented as a plurality of software instructionsbeing executed by a computer using any suitable operating system. In anexemplary embodiment of the invention, one or more tasks according toexemplary embodiments of method and/or system as described herein areperformed by a data processor, such as a computing platform forexecuting a plurality of instructions.

Optionally, the data processor includes a volatile memory for storinginstructions and/or data and/or a non-volatile storage, for example, amagnetic hard-disk and/or removable media, for storing instructionsand/or data. Optionally, a network connection is provided as well. Adisplay and/or a user input device such as a keyboard or mouse areoptionally provided as well.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Some embodiments of the invention are herein described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specificreference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that theparticulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrativediscussion of embodiments of the invention. In this regard, thedescription taken with the drawings makes apparent to those skilled inthe art how embodiments of the invention may be practiced.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing an appliance such as arefrigerator with a suppression mechanism according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram showing an appliance such as arefrigerator, or a smart home, with a suppression mechanism according toa second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing steps in calculating dates of festivalsusing the Hebrew calendar; and

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram showing how to obtain Sabbath onset andending times.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to automatedcontrol for certain functions of refrigerators and other domesticappliances and facilities and for smart homes, and, more particularly,but not exclusively, to automated suppression of certain functionsaccording to a timetable.

A smart home controller may work with a household appliance, or ahousehold appliance may have such a controller installed, and inparticular a refrigeration apparatus may have a controller. Theappliance has an auxiliary operation initiated automatically based onuser activity, and the controller provides an auxiliary operationsuppression unit configured to prevent the user activity fromautomatically triggering the auxiliary operation. The controller may beconnected to operate the auxiliary operation suppression unit based on acalendar and locally calculated daylight times. The controller is usefulfor preventing refrigerator lights and the like from turning on when notwanted.

Time switches that operate on a weekly plan are available. However,simply using a time switch on the auxiliary functions is not a solutionfor several reasons. The Sabbath starts and ends at different times eachweek as its hours are determined by sunset times. Tables of sunset timesare often available but tend to be constructed for the region in generalor based on a particular location in the time zone, thus failing to takeinto account local time and therefore actual sunset at the location.Furthermore, while Sabbath onset times are based on the local sunset,they are not identical to the sunset times. A further difficulty is thatthere are, in addition to the weekly Sabbath, eight or fifteen festivaldays on which the same issues apply, their dates being determinedaccording to the Hebrew calendar.

The present invention provides microprocessor control to the auxiliaryfunctions in question, which switches them off separately from theremaining functions in accordance with the days prescribed by the Hebrewcalendar and times according to sunset at the location on local time.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, itis to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and the arrangement of thecomponents and/or methods set forth in the following description and/orillustrated in the drawings and/or the Examples. The invention iscapable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out invarious ways.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates apparatus 10 such as arefrigerator. The refrigerator typically has microcontroller 12 whichoperates the appliance's main functions 14 such as refrigeration. Anauxiliary operation 16 is initiated automatically based on useractivity, for example a lamp is lit in the refrigerator based on openingof the door by the user. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 the lamp islit by sensing the opening of the door. The lamp is controlled by switch18. In one case the switch is a physical switch which is pressed closedor allowed to open by the door itself. In another case the opening andclosing of the door is based on a sensor and switch 18 is an overrideswitch.

An auxiliary operation suppression unit 20 prevents user activity, suchas opening the door, from automatically triggering the auxiliaryoperation. In the case of physical switch 18 the suppression unit 20would be an actuator.

A controller 22 is connected to operate the auxiliary operationsuppression unit 20 based on a calendar and locally calculated daylighttimes. The calendar may be the Hebrew calendar, and the times may beSabbath onset and ending times, as will be discussed in greater detailbelow. The Sabbath onset and ending times are local times requiringknowledge of the current location, and interface 24 allows users toenter current locations into the controller.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which is an alternative embodiment foran appliance 30 such as a refrigerator that does not have a physicalswitch for the auxiliary operation. Again the appliance has a mainfunction 32 and an auxiliary function 34. A sensor 36 senses thespecific user activity, such as opening the door and sends a signal to acontroller 38. In normal operation the controller then sends a commandto cause the auxiliary function to take place. The auxiliary operationsuppression unit and calendar time controller are combined as anaddition 40 to control program 42 that operates controller 38, andeither suppresses the controller command operate the function oralternatively may suppress the output from the sensor.

The auxiliary operations may include modifications of the operation ofthe refrigerator motor. For example opening the door of the refrigeratormay directly cause an increase in the level of operation of therefrigerator motor. Software suppression of the control signals maylikewise prevent such increase.

In other cases the change in operation of the refrigerator motor may bedue to a thermostat, which is affected by the opening of the door. Inthis case, most authorities do not see a problem but if required thenthe software can also suppress any change in operation due to outputfrom the thermostat.

More particularly, there are refrigerators that have a physical switchfor the auxiliary functions and those that have no physical switch or atleast the switch is not accessible for separate actuation. In manyrefrigerators the auxiliary function is operated by software in responseto sensor outputs.

In the case of a physical switch, an actuator is placed over thephysical switch and microprocessor operation can operate the actuator tokeep it switched off on the days and times required. This applieswhether the physical switch is the primary operator of the auxiliaryfunction or whether it is a backup operator. For example, lampillumination may be door operated, but there may be a separate switch toshut down the lamp circuit say for changing the lamp.

In the case of a refrigerator having a separate switch for Sabbathoperation, the actuator may be placed over the Sabbath operation switch.

In the case of a refrigerator that does not have a physical switch forauxiliary operations, the operations are all controlled in software. Inthis case, the calendar and time control is incorporated into thesoftware.

The present embodiments are by no means limited to refrigerators, andmay be applied to any other home appliance that includes auxiliaryautomatic functions that may require suppression.

Likewise the embodiments may be applied to smart homes and smart homecontrollers. The embodiment may be understood from FIG. 2, except thatthe appliance is the home as a whole and the smart home functions aredivided into those which are problematic for the Sabbath observer andfor which suppression is applied and those which are left to carry on.Smart home technology involves the use of computer and informationtechnology to control home appliances and features such as heating, airconditioning, windows, lighting, home entertainment and informationsystems etc. Smart home technology can range from simple remote controlof lighting through to complex computer/micro-controller based networkswith varying degrees of intelligence and automation. Home automation isadopted for reasons of ease, security and energy efficiency.

In modern construction in industrialized nations, most homes have beenwired for electrical power, telephones, TV outlets, such as cable orantenna, and a doorbell. Many household tasks were automated by thedevelopment of specialized automated appliances. For instance, automaticwashing machines were developed to reduce the manual labor of cleaningclothes, and water heaters reduced the labor necessary for obtaining hotwater.

The use of gaseous or liquid fuels, and later the use of electricityenabled increased automation in heating, reducing the labor necessary tomanually refuel heaters and stoves. Development of thermostats allowedmore automated control of heating, and later cooling.

As the number of controllable devices in the home rises, interconnectionand communication becomes a useful and desirable feature. For example, afurnace can send an alert message when it needs cleaning, or arefrigerator when it needs service. If no one is supposed to be home andthe alarm system is set, the home automation system could call theowner, or the neighbors, or an emergency number if an intruder isdetected.

In simple installations, automation may be as straightforward as turningon the lights when a person enters the room. In advanced installations,rooms can sense not only the presence of a person inside but know whothat person is and perhaps set appropriate lighting, temperature, musiclevels or television channels, taking into account the day of the week,the time of day, and other factors.

Other automated tasks may include reduced setting of the heating or airconditioning when the house is unoccupied, and restoring the normalsetting when an occupant is about to return. More sophisticated systemscan maintain an inventory of products, recording their usage through barcodes, or an RFID tag, and prepare a shopping list or even automaticallyorder replacements.

Home automation can also provide a remote interface to home appliancesor the automation system itself, to provide control and monitoring on asmartphone or web browser.

Some of the functions provided by home automation are problematic forthe Sabbath observer while others are not. Suppression of theproblematic functions at the correct time may be provided by the presentembodiments.

The following discusses the calculation of the times and the dates.

The Hebrew calendar is neither a solar calendar like the Gregoriancalendar, nor a lunar calendar like the Moslem calendar, but is a hybridlunar-solar calendar, which makes its calculation far from trivial.

The following is a discussion about how to calculate the Hebrewcalendar.

The Jewish calendar combines three unconnected astronomical phenomena:the rotation of the Earth about its axis, the day; the revolution of themoon about the Earth, the month; and the revolution of the Earth aboutthe sun, the year. These three phenomena are independent of each other,and there is no correlation between them. The moon revolves around theEarth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼days, that is, about 12 lunar months and 11 days.

To coordinate between the above three phenomena, the Jewish calendarconsists of 12 or 13 months of 29 or 30 days, and can be 353, 354, 355,383, 384 or 385 days long. The centerpiece of the calendar is the newmoon, referred to in Hebrew as the Molad.

A new month on the Jewish calendar begins with the Molad. The Molad forthe month of Tishri is the most important one for calendar calculations,and is referred to as Molad Tishri.

Note that the calculated Molad does not correspond precisely to theastronomical new moon. The length of time from one astronomical new moonto the next varies somewhat because of the eccentric orbits of the Earthand Moon; however, the calendar Molad is set using a fixed averagelength of time: 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts, commonly written in anabbreviated form: 29 d 12 h 793 p, where the part, or chelek, is a unitof time equal to 3⅓ seconds. There are 18 parts in a minute and 1,080parts in an hour.

The time for the Molad is Jerusalem local time, which is not the same asthe time on the clock, even in Jerusalem, since clocks use the time zonetime, not the local time.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which shows the stages involved incalculating the date of the New Year—Rosh Hashanah on the Jewishcalendar.

The calculation begins with box 100, taking a known Molad Tishri, theday of the week and the corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar.

In box 110, the calculation determines the number of months between theknown Molad and Molad Tishri of the year of interest.

In box 120, the number of months is multiplied by the length of theMolad interval: 29 d 12 h 793 p to give a number of days and fractionsof a day.

The result is then added to the known starting Molad as a number ofdays—box 130.

In box 140, the number of days modulo seven added to the start day ofthe week gives the day of the week of the Molad Tishri.

In box 150, the four postponement rules are used to determine the actualdate to be used for the New Year—Rosh Hashanah for the current year.

In box 160, the secular date is obtained by adding the number of dayselapsed, calculated in box 120, to the secular starting date andcorrecting for intervening leap years.

Box 110 in greater detail requires to determine how many months arebetween the starting point used and Tishri of the year of your endpoint. There are exactly 235 months in every 19-year cycle of leap years(12 12-month years plus 7 13-month years), but if the number of years isnot evenly divisible by 19, then it is necessary to determine whethereach remaining year is a regular year (12 months) or a leap year (13months).

The leap year cycle is calculated as follows. Leap years occur in years3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 of a 19-year cycle, and the 19-year cyclebegins in the year 1, so you can simply divide the year number by 19 andexamine the remainder. If the remainder is 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 or 0 (the19th year of the cycle) then the year is a leap year. Otherwise, it isnot.

In box 120, we multiply the number of months by the average length ofthe Molad, which is 29 d 12 h 793 p.

Box 130 requires adding the elapsed time calculated above to thestarting date to get the ending date.

At this point, we note the number of days elapsed between our startingpoint and our ending point as a number of days. We note this at thispoint in the calculation, after the hours are rounded into the days butbefore the weekday of the starting Molad is added to the number of days.This number of days will be necessary to determine the Gregorian date inbox 160.

Box 150 involves applying what are known as postponements or dechiyot,which are needed to find the correct days on which the festivals occur.There are four rules of postponement which postpone the date of RoshHashanah, but do not affect the calculated time of the Molad. One of thepostponements is a general rule of rounding to ensure the year has awhole number of days, while the rest are designed to prevent oddities inthe length of the year and the date of Rosh Hashanah.

Postponement 1: Molad Zakein—General Rounding Rule

The first postponement is Molad Zakein, meaning an “old” Molad. If theMolad occurs at or after noon, the Molad is considered to be “old” andwe round to the next day. This rule is quite commonly applied, affectinga quarter of all years.

The rule of Molad Zakein simply means that a Molad at or after noonrelates to the day that starts at the next sunset, 4-10 hours later,rather than the previous sunset which was 14-20 hours earlier.

Note that when postponements like this apply, a day must be added to theelapsed time for purposes of calculating the Gregorian equivalent date,but the Molad does not change. The unchanged Molad is used for purposesof calculating subsequent years and for certain religious purposes.

Postponement 2: Lo A″DU Rosh

The second postponement is known as Lo A″DU or Lo A″DU Rosh. This rulestates that Rosh Hashanah cannot occur on a Sunday, a Wednesday or aFriday. If the calculated Molad occurs on one of these days of the week,Rosh Hashanah is postponed by a day to prevent other problems with thecalendar.

This postponement is also commonly applied, as you might imagine. Itapplies to three out of seven days, so one would expect it to occuralmost half of the time.

Note that the postponements of Molad Zakein and Lo A″DU Rosh can work incombination. Thus, the rule of Molad Zakein must be checked before therule of Lo A″DU Rosh.

Postponement 3: Gatarad

The remaining two dechiyot are much less commonly applied.

Postponement Gatarad holds that if Molad Tishri in a simple 12-month,non-leap, year occurs on a Tuesday at 9 h 204 p or later, Rosh Hashanahis postponed to the next day, a Wednesday, which by the effect of LoA″DU Rosh would then be postponed to Thursday.

Why does such a complicated rule exist? This rule prevents thepossibility that a year might be 356 days, an invalid length. Consider:a Molad Tishri at 3 d 9 h 204 p would not be postponed by Molad Zakeinor Lo A″DU Rosh. Add 12 lunar cycles (354 d 8 h 876 p) to the nextyear's Rosh Hashanah and you get 7 d 18 h 0 p with 354 days elapsed.Molad Zakein applies to the following year, postponing Rosh Hashanah tothe next day, a Sunday, with 355 days elapsed. Lo A″DU Rosh is thentriggered, postponing Rosh Hashanah and leaving 356 days elapsed andmaking the current year an invalid length. Gatarad takes days away fromthe following year and adds them to the preceding year, so both yearsare a valid length.

Note that Gatarad invariably triggers Lo A″DU Rosh. Gatarad only applieswhen Rosh Hashanah is Tuesday and Gatarad postpones Rosh Hashanah toWednesday. Lo A″DU Rosh then postpones Rosh Hashanah to Thursday.

Note also that this rule is not combined with Molad Zakein. If MoladZakein applies to the current year, Gatarad is unnecessary; thus Gataradapplies only to Molads between 9 h 204 p and 17 h 1079 p.

Postponement 4: Betutkafot

Like Postponement Gatarad, this rule is not very commonly applied and isalso designed to prevent a year from having an invalid length.Postponement Betutkafot prevents a leap-year from having 382 days, toofew days, by postponing Rosh Hashanah of the non-leap year following theleap year.

If Molad Tishri in a year following a leap year occurs on Monday afterthe 15th hour and 589 parts, then it is postponed to the next day. Therule is applied only if the actual Molad occurs on Monday, not if it ispostponed to Monday. Like Gatarad, the rule really only applies toMolads before noon, because Molad Zakein handles the postponements forMolads at or after noon. Unlike Gatarad, Betutkafot does not trigger LoA″DU Rosh, because Betutkafot postpones Rosh Hashanah from a Monday to aTuesday and Tuesday is an acceptable day for Rosh Hashanah.

Microprocessors are typically programmed with the Gregorian date, so afinal stage is to determine the Gregorian date, at least for a startingpoint. Typically, one would calculate the Gregorian date for RoshHashanah and work from there. One may take the elapsed days calculatedin Step 4, add any additional days triggered by the postponements inStep 5, and add this number of days to the date of Rosh Hashanah for theknown Molad.

The principles above are sufficient to convert Rosh Hashanah to aGregorian date for any year. However, for the remaining festivals, onemay calculate either that year's Rosh Hashanah, the following year'sRosh Hashanah or both and use this information to work out the datebased on the lengths of months. Additional information relates to themonth of the festival being considered.

The following contains information for all of the months, irrespectiveof whether festivals are involved.

Tishri

Tishri is the month of Rosh Hashanah, so you simply add the date of themonth to Rosh Hashanah and subtract 1 (because Rosh Hashanah is Day 1).

Cheshvan

Cheshvan is the second month of the calendar year, and the precedingmonth of Tishri is always 30 days, so you simply take the current RoshHashanah, add 29 days (30−1 for Rosh Hashanah) and add the date of themonth.

Kislev

Kislev is the hardest month to calculate. You cannot simply work forwardfrom the current year's Rosh Hashanah, because the preceding month ofCheshvan can be 29 or 30 days, nor can you work backward from the nextyear's Rosh Hashanah, because Kislev itself can also be 29 or 30 days.To calculate the length of Kislev, you need to know the date of RoshHashanah of both the current year and the next year, then calculate thedifference between them to determine the length of the current year. Ifthe year is 353, 354, 383 or 384 days, then Cheshvan is 29 days and youcan determine a date in Kislev taking the current Rosh Hashanah, adding58 days, then adding the date of the month. If the year is 355 or 385days, then Cheshvan is 30 days and you can determine a date in Kislev bytaking the current Rosh Hashanah, adding 59 days, then adding the dateof the month.

Tevet, Shevat

The remaining months of the year are of unchanging length, but thenumber of months varies depending on whether the year is a leap year!Tevet and Shevat are best calculated by working backwards from thefollowing year's Rosh Hashanah and subtracting an additional 30 days ina leap year. Tevet's offset in a non-leap year is −266; Shevat's is−237.

Adar, Adar I and Adar II

Adar is always offset −207 from the following Rosh Hashanah; however, inregular years, Adar is the 12th month of the year (starting fromNissan), and in leap years, is known as Adar II and is the 13th month ofthe year. Adar I, the extra month inserted as the 12th month in leapyears, is always offset −237 days from Rosh Hashanah.

Nissan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul

The remaining months of the year are all of unchanging length and notaffected by leap years. Simply subtract the appropriate number of daysfrom the following year's Rosh Hashanah and add the date of the month.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4, which illustrates calculation ofShabbat onset times requires longitude and latitude at the location inquestion. Local time at any given location is an offset of the time zonetime being observed which can be obtained using the longitude andlatitude, provided in box 200. Published sunset times are not likely tobe for either the given location or based on the local time and socannot be used. Instead, an offset is calculated between clock time andactual local time, box 210, and actual sunset times for the givenlocation are calculated in terms of local time—box 220—and then may beconverted into the clock time using the offset. The Sabbath onset timeis for most locations 18 minutes prior to the local sunset time. InJerusalem, the Sabbath onset time is 40 minutes prior to the localsunset time—box 230.

The Sabbath ending time is based on a definition of nightfall thatdepends on the depression angle of the sun below the horizon. Someauthorities use a solar depression angle of seven degrees and fiveminutes, and then add three minutes to the resulting time. Otherauthorities use a solar depression angle of eight and a half degreeswith no time added—box 240.

In practice tables are available of the calendar and of Sabbath times,and numerous programs are available for calculating either. Themicroprocessor however needs to know the local coordinates and the timeaccording to the local time zone in order to obtain the correct answers.

It is expected that during the life of a patent maturing from thisapplication many relevant actuators and control techniques forrefrigeration will be developed and the scope of the corresponding termsare intended to include all such new technologies a priori.

The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “having”and their conjugates mean “including but not limited to”.

The term “consisting of” means “including and limited to”.

As used herein, the singular form “a”, “an” and “the” include pluralreferences unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, forclarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also beprovided in combination in a single embodiment, and the abovedescription is to be construed as if this combination were explicitlywritten. Conversely, various features of the invention, which are, forbrevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also beprovided separately or in any suitable subcombination or as suitable inany other described embodiment of the invention, and the abovedescription is to be construed as if these separate embodiments wereexplicitly written. Certain features described in the context of variousembodiments are not to be considered essential features of thoseembodiments, unless the embodiment is inoperative without thoseelements.

Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specificembodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modificationsand variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives,modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scopeof the appended claims.

All publications, patents and patent applications mentioned in thisspecification are herein incorporated in their entirety by referenceinto the specification, to the same extent as if each individualpublication, patent or patent application was specifically andindividually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference. Inaddition, citation or identification of any reference in thisapplication shall not be construed as an admission that such referenceis available as prior art to the present invention. To the extent thatsection headings are used, they should not be construed as necessarilylimiting. In addition, any priority document(s) of this applicationis/are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its/their entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. Hot water apparatus initiated based on useractivity, the apparatus further comprising: a hot water actionsuppression unit configured to prevent said user activity fromautomatically triggering a hot water heating operation, and a controllerconnected to operate said hot water action suppression unit based on acalendar, wherein said hot water action is governed by a controllercommand based on output of a sensor, the sensor sensing said useractivity, said hot water action suppression unit configured to suppresssaid controller command, said suppressing being carried out while saidsensor continues to operate, the hot water action suppression unit beingimplemented using software, thereby being applied without manufacturingchanges to said hot water apparatus.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the calendar is the Hebrew calendar.
 3. The apparatus of claim1, further comprising obtaining local daylight times, wherein the localdaylight times provide a Sabbath onset time and a Sabbath end timecorrect for a current location.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprisingan interface for entering location coordinates to said controller. 5.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said hot water action suppression unitcomprises an actuator, the actuator located over a physical switchgoverning said hot water operation.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe hot water apparatus is stand-alone, said controller is an internalcontroller and said hot water heating operation is carried outinternally to said apparatus.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein saidcontroller is part of a smart home controller.
 8. Method for hot waterheating suppression for household hot water, a hot water heating actionbeing initiated automatically based on sensing by a sensor of useractivity, the method comprising: obtaining a calendar, and carrying outa suppression of said hot water heating action by preventing said useractivity from automatically triggering said hot water heating, saidprevention being according to days based on said calendar, wherein saidhot water heating action is governed by a controller command based onoutput of said sensor, said hot water heating action suppressioncomprising suppressing said controller command, said suppressing beingapplied while said sensor continues to operate, said suppression unitbeing implemented using software, thereby being applied withoutmanufacturing changes to said household hot water apparatus.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the calendar is the Hebrew calendar.
 10. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising providing local daylight times,wherein the local daylight times provide a Sabbath onset time and aSabbath end time correct according to a current location.
 11. The methodof claim 8, comprising using an interface for entering locationcoordinates.
 12. The method of claim 8, comprising: locating an actuatorover a physical hot water switch, said physical switch governing saidhot water heating action; carrying out hot water heating suppression byoperating said actuator.